Nine Female Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike

Nine female political prisoners have staged a hunger strike to protest the Evin Prison special guards’ attack on the ward populated by female political prisoners. Speaking to Rooz, Amin Ahmadian, Bahareh Hedayat’s husband, confirmed the news and explained, “On Tuesday afternoon, they took the female political prisoners to the prison’s yard while they searched their cells and confiscated some of their personal belongings. It is not yet clear why they did that, but it appears that they were looking for a cell phone or a communication device.”

Currently, 37 female political prisoners are held at the Evin Prison ward. Bahareh Hedayat’s husband says, “The female prisoners were bodily searched in a harassing manner. As a result, and in protest of that harassment, they are staging a hunger strike.”

Bahareh Hedayat, Zhila Baniyaghoub, Mahsa Amrabadi, Hakimeh Shokri, Shiva Nazarahari, Zhila Karamzadeh Makvandi, Nazanin Deyhami, Raheleh Zokaei and Nasim Soltan-Beigi are the nine prisoners who have gone on hunger strike.

Bahareh Hedayat’s husband tells Rooz, “Bahareh has always been opposed to hunger strike. She had even spoken several times to Nasreen Sotoudeh to convince her to break her hunger strike, but now the situation is so heart-wrenching and despicable that she has been forced to go on hunger strike. We will receive no information either until our next visitation date on Sunday.

Nasrin Sotoudeh has been on hunger strike since two weeks ago in protest to the pressures imposed on her family. Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, tells Rooz that his wife’s condition is seriously concerning and that she has been transferred to the Evin Prison’s emergency clinic several times.

Bahareh Hedayat’s husband, Amin Ahmadian, adds, “Yesterday morning they threatened Ms. Sotoudeh that she will be transferred to solitary confinement and stripped of family visitation rights if she does not break her strike. They threatened her that the has to break her strike because, otherwise, she must serve a three-week solitary confinement sentence as the punishment for going on strike.”

He adds, “They have also threatened the other nine prisoners that they too will be transferred to solitary confinement if they do not end their hunger strike.

Zhila Baniyaghoub, Mahsa Amrabadi and Faran Hesami are three female political prisoners whose visitations rights are not honored by prison officials. Their husbands, Bahman Ahmadi-Amouei, Masoud Bastani and Kamran Rahimian are also behind bars at the Rajaeishahr prison.